{"id":147072,"date":"2026-02-02T02:42:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T02:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/147072\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T02:42:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T02:42:22","slug":"trump-79-claims-no-memory-of-part-in-humiliating-texas-gop-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/147072\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump, 79, Claims No Memory of Part in Humiliating Texas GOP Defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

The president feigned ignorance about a major Republican loss<\/a> and the candidate he endorsed days before the election. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn Texas, a Democrat won a special election in an area that you had won by 17 points. What is your reaction to that?\u201d a reporter asked President Donald Trump, 79, during an address outside Mar-a-Lago on Sunday afternoon. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. I didn\u2019t hear about it. Somebody ran\u2014where?\u201d the president responded, despite his endorsement of GOP candidate Leigh Wambsganss as \u201ca highly successful Entrepreneur, and an incredible supporter of our Movement,\u201d on Friday in a Truth Social post signed \u201cPresident DJT.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrat and first-time candidate Taylor Rehmet, 33, defeated Wambsganss in a special election for Texas<\/a>\u2019s 9th State Senate District after decades of GOP rule on Saturday. Trump won that district by 17 points in the 2024 presidential election.<\/p>\n

\"DonaldDonald Trump claimed that he had ‘nothing to do with’ an unprecedented special election loss in Texas. Fox News <\/p>\n

As the reporter filled the president in on the lost seat, Trump simply shrugged and said, \u201cI\u2019m not involved in that. That\u2019s a local Texas race. You mean I won by 17, and this person lost? Things like that happen. I\u2019m not on the ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes it worry you\u2014\u201d the reporter began, before Trump interrupted and said, \u201cYou don\u2019t know whether or not it\u2019s transferable, you know, I\u2019m not on the ballot, so you don\u2019t know whether or not it\u2019s transferable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast\u2019s request for comment. <\/p>\n

Trump pivoted from the loss in Texas and diverted to the topic of crime<\/a>, warning: \u201cBut, you know, if you put the Democrats in, you\u2019ll end up with open borders again, you\u2019ll end up with crime all over the place\u2014there\u2019s no crime anymore.” <\/p>\n

\"Failed-candidateWhile Trump claimed he didn’t know anything about the election, he gave a lengthy endorsement to a GOP candidate on Friday. Screenshot\/X\/X <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think of it, the country has the lowest crime it\u2019s had in 125 years\u2014in recorded history,” Trump continued. \u201cThe year 1900, that\u2019s a long time ago. So, very good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s mood dropped again as he jumped back to the original topic of discussion, once again pleading his lack of knowledge on the Texas special election before seemingly washing his hands of the matter altogether.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I don\u2019t know a thing about it. I didn\u2019t know\u2014I mean, I know there\u2019s a race going there, and, uh, it\u2019s too bad, what can I say? I have nothing to do with it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"DemocratDemocrat Taylor Rehmet coasted to victory in a Texas state legislative special election on Saturday\u2014a district Trump comfortably carried a year ago. Screenshot\/Instagram\/Instagram <\/p>\n

Trump was one of several high-profile Republicans who threw their weight behind Wambsganss. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. Ted Cruz were among other figures who endorsed the losing MAGA candidate. <\/p>\n

Despite Trump\u2019s distancing from the loss, Wambsganss herself said the special election shutout, which Rehmet won 57\u201343, was a \u201cwake-up call\u201d in a statement to the Texas Tribune<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The GOP loss in such a stronghold has been seen by many Democrats as a positive omen<\/a>, with Democrat strategist Matt McDermott describing the win as a \u201chuge political earthquake\u201d on X<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"TheTrump batted off a question about ‘worry’ over the results, while polls show a very weakened GOP slate for midterms. Win McNamee\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

The polls seem to agree ahead of midterms, with a New York Times<\/a>\/Siena survey from late last month finding that 56 percent of voters disapprove of Trump\u2019s job performance, while 48 percent of respondents planned to support a Democratic candidate over 43 percent for the Republicans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The president feigned ignorance about a major Republican loss and the candidate he endorsed days before the election.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[29455,7810,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-147072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-2026-midterm-elections","tag-donald-j-trump","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}